LOTR:Current policies
Policies at the One Wiki to Rule Them All For any questions or concerns, leave a message either at DarkLantern or HiddenVale's talk-page. Rules on Canonicity and Non-canonicity (See: LOTR:Canon) 1. This is a Book-first Tolkien Mythology wiki, which means that all non-canon topics are to be categorized as such. (Images are excluded from this rule due to the lack of any canonical pictures of many things in Tolkien Mythology.) Details of this rule: *Variations or adaptations of canonical objects, characters, creatures, weapons, plots, descriptions, and all other information that wholly originate from movies, video games, card-playing games, online games, role-playing games, or board games must be placed in an article's Portrayal in adaptations section and justified properly. *All non-canon articles must have the following notices and be placed in the following categories: ** (typed in Source editing mode) at the top of the page. **'Everything' non-canon belongs in one of the subcategories of Category:Non-canonical topics. **If you are going to use an Infobox for a Non-canonical character you must use Template:Infobox Non-canonical Character NOT the ones listed here: Template:Infobox Person because the use of Infobox Non-canonical Character gets them listed in Category:Non-canonical characters where the article should be. Non-canonical characters DO NOT belong in Category:Characters because they are NOT canon. **Following Darkchylde's model for Non-canon articles all of them should have Portrayal in adaptations instead of History and Biography , since they are Non-canon. 2. Fanon, that is, characters or any topics originating from LOTR-related discussion forums, war gaming sites, a fan's imagination, video game MODs are not allowed here except for in one's own user-space (example: in User:DarkLantern). If you want to create fan-fiction, write it at the LOTR Fanon wiki. 3. From this time forward the unofficial rule of no to pages on figurants (unnamed people and characters) from official literature to movies and video games is now the rule on this wikicity. For example: no solo pages on such things like 'Hobbit(s)' standing behind Frodo or Bilbo, or 'Men' or 'Man' standing behind Aragorn or Faramir, or 'Elves' standing behind Arwen or Elrond in the movie or movies is forbidden. All unnamed peoples and characters that clearly appear in the movies or video games but have no name belong in List of unnamed original characters of the books and films and will remain there. This also means no to any fanon names without any official proof from things such as a Decipher Card from the LOTR Trading Card Game made by Decipher, Inc.. The origin of this rule grew out of this complaint: User_talk:DarkLantern/Archive_3#Articles_for_deletion. Rules on editing pages 1. Editing other peoples' Userpages (example: User:Wyvern Rex.) is forbidden. The only possible exception to this is that it is permissible for a User, registered or anonymous, to undo an obvious vandalism on a Userpage if no Admin or rollback User is present to fix the problem. 2. Putting your signature (Signing pages) on any page save for a Talkpage or Usertalk page or writing on a main article (not its Talkpage) that you edited it or created it in praise of yourself, is forbidden. Any such signature will be removed instantly. Additionally, LOTR main-page articles must not be used for personal opinions nor is leaving messages personal or otherwise allowed, nor is leaving instructions personal or otherwise on a page allowed by any User. 3. If you are going to use an Infobox on your Userpage, Do Not use the ones listed on Template:Infobox Person or Template:Infobox Character, because these will put your Userpage in Category:Characters, which is for Tolkien's In-universe characters only, NOT Userpages. This rule's purpose is to avoid having people's Userpages listed as though they were characters in Tolkien's Mythology, because that makes the Wiki look like an unorganized mess. Use Userbox instead. 4. It is the policy of this Tolkien Mythology wiki to always use the most popular or most recognized names first for the name of a person, place, or object. This will usually be the English word usually used by Tolkien. For example, use Blue Mountains over "Ered Luin", Lake-town over "Esgaroth", Rhovanion over "Wilderland", "Gollum over Sméagol", and Moria over "Khazad-dûm" or "Mines of Moria". (See also: Forum:Naming standards) 5. Links within section headers is not allowed, e.g. Men of Brethil 6. Please embolden the title of the article only once at the start of the article. Note: putting "internal link" brackets around the title of the page (like this: The Hobbit) will also embolden the title. 7. All articles must be categorized whether they are Canon or Non-canon. 8. There is a growing problem of over-categorizing pages. For example, Boromir is a Man of Gondor and since this category (Category:Men of Gondor) falls under Category:Men, there is no reason to have Category:Men on his article. 9. The first section headings for articles on characters or non-canonical characters should be "Biography", not "History"; "History" is for articles of locations and objects (see: Aragorn II Elessar and Hithlum). 10. All articles must be properly sorted. Characters should be sorted by their last name or surname. Type '''in Source editing mode on a page to do this. 11. From now on, references on all pages will be done in the '''Wikipedia style utilizing with the book source italicized in the standard sized font see: Idril and Eöl. :See our References Guide for all reference formatting guidelines. 12. When creating an internal link (i.e. a link to another page on this wiki), do not '''give the '''whole URL address. Example: Merely type Gondor instead of http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Gondor. 13. Never remove templates ("citation needed") from articles when you see them, as references are very important. Only add the template to the end of non-referenced statements if they are specific and you believe they are not common knowledge. Rules on marking articles for deletion and merging 1. Articles for deletion: These suspect or disagreed with articles must first have a notice or on it and/or placed here for discussion or voting or the articles talkpage for discussion. :Registered users votes and opinions are the only ones considered to be truly valid since becoming a registered user means you are closer to being a member of the community then an anon, however, this being a free wiki that anyone edit they can still offer an opinion on the subject for the sake of argument. :Articles marked for Speedy Deletion ( ) means 'Speedy'. Authors have a maximum Three days to justify the article or it will be deleted. ''' 2. All articles that are proposed for '''Merging with another should have placed within the article and their merging discussed and voted upon in Forum:Articles to be merged or in the articles talkpage. :Please follow the guidelines. :::Registered users votes and opinions are the only ones considered to be truly valid since becoming a registered user means you are closer to being a member of the community then an anon, however, this being a free wiki that anyone edit they can still offer an opinion on the subject for the sake of argument. Other rules and suggestions 1. When welcoming a new registered User, you should use this one --~~~~ as it has a link to this page. 2. All contributors are encouraged to write articles in their own words. Copying text is restricted from any '''websites except for from Wikipedia. 3. Pages created to '''advertise Tolkien-themed games, forums, blogs, fandom communities, websites, and others are absolutely forbidden and will be deleted instantly without notice, as they are considered spam. 4. All registered ssers who have created a Userpage with an intent to stay are encouraged to tell us about themselves and to give an account of their knowledge of Tolkien Mythology using the knowledge templates see in: Category:Userbox templates and the languages they speak and are familiar with see in: Category:Babel templates. 5. All new editors, whether registered or anonymous, are encouraged to peruse the wiki before making a non-minor edit to get sense of our article formats, of what we prioritize in an article, and what isn't allowed. Category:Policies on LOTR